Hair ornament with a resilient attaching clip



May 18, 1965 G. N. BOLINGER 3,133,915

HAIR ORNAMENT WITH A RESILIENT ATTACHING CLIP Filed July 10, 1962INVENTOR GECFGE NOEL BOLINGER wwywfw ATTORNEY United States Patent3,183,915 HAIR ORNAMENT WITH A RESILIENT ATTACHING CLIP George NoelBolinger, Shelbyville, 111., assignor to Sta- Rite Ginnie Lou, 'Inc.,Shelbyville, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Filed July 10, 1962, Ser.No. 208,762 Claims. (Cl. 132-47) This invention relates to a hairornament and particularly to a device of this character having novelmeans combined therewith for attaching it to the hair of the wearer.

An important object of the invention is to provide a device whichpresents a highly ornamental appearance and includes as a part of theornamentation a body having means attached thereto in a novel manner forsecuring the device to the hair of the wearer.

A further object is to provide such a device wherein the means forattaching the device to the hair is in the form of a clip quicklyattachable to the body of the device and so formed with respect theretothat once it has been attached to the body, it will remain connectedthereto.

A further object is to provide such a device wherein the attaching meansis wholly hidden from view from the face or top of the device.

A further object is to provide a hair ornament of the type referred towherein a ribbon or similar element is passed through the body of thedevice and is maintained in its proper position by the body and by theclip which attaches the ornament to the hair.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparentduring the course of the following description.

In the drawing I have shown one embodiment of the invention. In thisshowing FIGURE 1 is a face view of the device;

FIGURE 2 is a back view thereof;

FIGURE 3 is a section on line 33 of FIGURE 1; and

FIGURE 4 is a section on line 4-4 of FIGURE 3.

Referring to the drawing the numeral designates the body of the deviceshown in the present instance as being substantially circular in formand surface-beaded as at 11 to render the body of the device ornamentalin appearance. The body of the device is preferably made of any suitablemolded plastic, but it will be apparent that any material may be usedand that the body may be surfaceornamented in a variety of ways. Back ofthe body and preferably molded integral therewith is a bar 13 arrangedwith respect to the ring portion of the body as shown in FIGURES 3 and4, the top of the bar 13 preferably lying above the plane of the bottomof the ring portion. The bar 13 is relatively rigid, although it maypossess a reasonable degree of resiliency so long as it is suflicientlystiff to perform its functions as referred to below.

The ornament is attached to the hair through the medium of a spring clipindicated as a whole by the numeral 15 and comprising upper and lowerarms 16 and 17 pivoted to each other as at 18 and biased by a spring 19to the closed position shown in FIGURE 3. The arm 17 is relatively flatand has its upper face lying against the bottom of the bar 13.

The arm 16 is provided at one end with a finger piece 20 and theadjacent end of the arm 17 is provided with an extended portion alsoforming a finger piece 20, the two finger pieces being pressed togethermanually to open the arms 16 and 17 for attachment of the device to thehair as will become apparent. The arm 16, from the pivot thereof, slopesdownwardly as viewed in FIGURE 3 as at 21 toward the arm 17 and thenbends to form a flat section 22 in engagement with the arm 17. The arm16 is then bent upwardly as at 23 and then horizontally as at 24 "Ice toform a portion engaging the top of the bar 13. Thus normally, the spring19 acts to resiliently clamp the arms 16 and 17 against the bar 13. Fromthe intermediate portion 24 the arm 16 slopes downwardly as at 25 towardthe arm 1'7 and is provided with a free end 26 normally engaging the arm17.'

The device carries an ornamental ribbon or similar device 28 which ispreferably of a width greater than the internal diameter of the ring ofthe body, across the bar 13, whereby it is preferably ornamentallygathered at least to some extent across the bar 13 so that the ribbonfrictionally engages the ring portion of the body at opposite ends ofthe bar 13 to introduce some element of friction to tend to prevent theribbon from sliding 1ongitudinally out of its intended position. It willbe noted that the intermediate straight portion 24 of the arm 16 bulgesthe ribbon upwardly centrally of the body and this not only improves theappearance of the ribbon but also introduces an element of frictionagainst the intermediate portion 24 to further assist in preventingdisplacement of the ribbon. Moreover, the sloping portions 21 and 25 ofthe arm 16 tend to bind the ribbon against the ring portion of the bodyto further substantially prevent the longitudinal displacement of theribbon.

Operation The operation of the device will be rather apparent from theforegoing description. The device is attached to the hair by pressingthe finger pieces 20 and 20 toward each other to spread the free ends ofthe arms 16 and 17, whereupon the device is inserted into the hair witha strand of the hair arranged above the arm 17 and below the arm 16.Some of the hair will find its way into the spaces on both sides of thebar 13, thus assisting the resiliency of the spring 19 and the arms 16and 17 in maintaining the device in the hair against displacement. Someof the hair of course will find its way beneath the arm portions 22 and26 to further provide an efficient gripping action.

The bending of the arm 16 to form the portions 23, 24 and 25 thereofprovides means for effectively connecting the clip 15 to the body of thedevice. In assembling the device, the ribbon will be threaded beneathone side of the ring portion of the body, over the bar 13, and thenbeneath the opposite side of the bar. Holding the righthand end of theribbon against displacement, as viewed in FIGURE 3, the free end of thearm 16 is then inserted eneath the right-hand side of the ring, over thebar 13, and then beneath the opposite side of the ring. Thus it will beapparent that the bending of the arm 16 not only facilitates the quickand easy assembling of the device but also provides means, cooperatingwith the bar 13, to maintain the clip sufliciently firmly attached tothe body without the use of any fastening elements of any kind.Moreover, the clip 15 cooperates with the body to frictionally anchorthe ribbon against longitudinal displacement, and it has been found thatwithout securing the ribbon in position, for example by sewing it to oneof the elements, it remains in position for an indefinite length oftime. Moreover, the lack of attaching means for any of the elementspermits the user very easily to replace the ribbon with another ribbonof different color or with any other suitable flexible ornamentalelement.

While a clip of the type having a single upper arm and a single lowerarm has been illustrated and described, it will be apparent that theinvention is not limited to a clip of this type. It is a common practiceto make various types of clips some of which have single prong arms andsome of which have two prong arms. Where a plurality of prongs isemployed to constitute either of the arms, it will be understood thatthe expression pair of arms in the claims is meant to include a singleupper'arm of a plurality and a single lower arm of a plurality, althoughit 3 will be apparent that where two-upper prongs are employed, one orboth of such prongs may be bent as at 23, 24 and 25 so long as the upperarm structure is bent to retain the device in position. Moreovenwhile asingle ribbon has been illustrated, it will be apparent that any type offlexible ornament may be used, regardless of its form and regardless ofwhether it is constituted by one ribbon or a plurality of ribbons, forexample three ribbons one of which extends longitudinally of the clipand the "others of which are crossed.

Where such expressions as circular body and circular portion appear inthe claims, it would be obvious that within the scope of the presentinvention, these elements need not be perfectly circular, but may be inthe shape of ovals, squares, ets., so long as the body is continuoustherearound and is provided with an opening therethrough. The wordcircular has been employed to facilitate the definition of therelationship of other elements of the device to the body.

It is to be understood that the form of the invention shown anddescribed is to be taken as a preferred example of the same and thatvarious changes in the shape, size, and arrangement of the parts may bemade as do not depart from the spirit of the invention or the scope ofthe appended claims.

I claim:

1. A hair ornament comprising a substantially circular body having .abar extending thereacross, a spring clip having a pair of arms ofrelatively resilient material spring urged toward each other, one ofsaid arms extending across said body in contact with the bottom thereofat opposite sides thereof and having an intermediate offset portionextending over and engaging said bar to prevent longitudinaldisplacement of said arms, and a soft fabriclike strip of ornamentalmaterial extending across said body, said strip of material beingarranged between and in contact with said one arm and with said body atsaid opposite sides thereof and extending over and in contact with saidofl'set, said strip of material extending longitudinally of said clipand being of a length at least equal to said clip to conceal the latterfrom View when the orna- 'ment is attached to the hair of the wearer bysaid clip.

2. A hair ornament comprising a relatively rigid body having anornamental circular portion and a cross bar extending diametricallythereacross, and a clip for attaching the ornament to the hair of thewearer, said clip having an arm extending diametrically across andbeneath said circular portion in contact with opposite sides thereof,said arm intermediate its ends having an upwardly offset portionextending over said bar to fix said clip against i longitudinaldisplacement, said arm being formed of resilient material to facilitateits insertion beneath one side of said circular portion, then over saidbar, and then under the other side of said circular portion and tomaintain resilient engagement of said arm with said bar and with saidopposite sides of said circular portion.

3. A hair ornament according to claim 2 wherein said clip comprises asecond arm, said arms being pivoted to 'each other adjacent one end andspring pressed toward each other, said first named arm on opposite sidesof said bar having portions normally extending downwardly into resilientcontact with said second named arm.

4. A hair ornament comprising a relatively rigid body having anornamental circular portion and a cross bar extending diametricallythereacross, a spring clip having a pair of resilient arms pivotedlyconnected to each other adjacent one end, one of said arms extendingacross said circular portion therebeneath and in contact with oppositesides thereof and having an intermediate portion offset to extend oversaid bar to fix said clip against longitudinal displacement, andfabric-like ornamental strip extending longitudinally of said clipbeneath opposite sides of said circular portion and over said bar andengaged by said clip to maintain it in position against said oppositesides of the bottom of said circular body to frictionally hold itagainst'lon'gitudinal displacement.

5. A hair ornament according to claim 4 wherein said strip, where itpasses over said bar, is wider than the length of said bar so as to beornamental'ly gathered transversely intermediate its length, said stripof material being of a length at least as great as said clip to concealthe latter when the ornament is attached to the hair by said clip, saidone arm on opposite sides of said bar extending downwardly intoengagement with the other arm whereby said one arm is maintained atleast partly by said other arm in engagement with said strip of materialwhere the latter passes beneath said opposite sides of said circularportion of said body.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,357,871 9/44Bolinger 13247 2,883,993 4/59 Laughton 13248X FOREiGN PATENTS 202,3448/23 Great Britain.

238,113 8/25 Great Britain. RICHARD A. GAUDET, Primary Examiner. LAVERNED. GEIGER, Examiner.

2. A HAIR ORNAMENT COMPRISING A RELATIVELY RIGID BODY HAVING ANORNAMENTAL CIRCULAR PORTION AND A CROSS BAR EXTENDING DIAMETRICALLYTHEREACROSS, AND A CLIP FOR ATTACHING THE ORNAMENT TO THE HAIR OF THEWEARER, SAID CLIP HAVING AN ARM EXTENDING DIAMETRICALLY ACROSS ANDBENEATH SAID CIRCULAR PORTION IN CONTACT WITH OPPOSITE SIDES THEREOF,SAID ARM INTERMEDIATE ITS ENDS HAVING AN UPWARDLY OFFSET PORTIONEXTENDING OVER SAID BAR TO FIX SAID CLIP AGAINST LONGITUDINALDISPLACEMENT, SAID ARM BEING FORMED OF RESILIENT MATERIAL TO FACILITATEITS INSERTION BENEATH ONE SIDE OF SAID CIRCULAR PORTION, THEN OVER SAIDBAR, AND THEN UNDER THE OTHER SIDE OF SAID CIRCULAR PORTION AND TOMAINTAIN RESILIENT ENGAGEMENT OF SAID ARM WITH SAID BAR AND WITH SAIDOPPOSITE SIDES OF SAID CIRCULAR PORTION.